They realize - Outsders SMP - Reunion Arc - Completed

~14~ Spill your Guts

A/n: gosh, sometimes I swear these titles just come to me so easily! "The reunion", "tooth and nail", and now this one. Wonder what happens here...

Date written: 10/6/2023
Date released Black Friday 2023 (o refuse to take the 2 sec to look at the date)
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Owen was asleep.

More than that, he wasn't asleep because he passed out from dehydration or because he had fallen over from exhaustion. 

Even stranger, he had been eating. This rang some alarm bells in Red's mind, but he had been behaving like a normal person for the past few days with nothing happening. He had talked to Apo about it, but they just said as long as Owen stayed imprisoned, they didn't care about him.

They were lying, and Red could see it, but he didn't mention it.

It was nearing midnight with no movement, so Red called it for the night and went upstairs to sleep. Since he didn't have a house, he was staying at Guts' until he could rebuild. 

Less than an hour later, Owen woke back up. Red was gone, and he almost laughed at how easy the people who wanted him kept locked up most had made it to escape. 

Using his pencil, Owen hooked the key lying a few feet away from the door. Krow hadn't bothered picking it back up, and since he had taken care to cover it with small bits of Blackstone, neither Guts nor Red noticed it. A minute later, he was out.

Scoffing, Owen gathered his things. "They've not even given me a challenge. You'd think they would want to keep me in, but clearly not."

Owen then peeled two pages of his notebook apart. In it, dried netherwart was hidden. This would be essential. 

Right. Now I just have to sneak outside without Guts or Red seeing me. Not yet, at least.

Owen silently climbed the ladder to the top floor, where he stopped. He heard two people's heavy breathing, and peeked over to make sure they were actually asleep. 

They were.

Perfect. 

Untying his hair, Owen attached some string to Guts' horn and left, unwinding it as he went. He left the string on the floor just outside the door and began digging. 

War experience digging trenches comes in handy, huh. 

After about an hour, everything was set up. Owen was running out of time, though. 

He went back to the front entrance and began pulling the string. 

Guts fell right for it. They woke up and looked around, confused. When they saw the string, they followed it outside, where Owen was standing. 

When Guts saw him, they froze.

"OWEN! He's-"

But before they could say anything more, a backpack full of items smashed against their head. 

●

"Pleasure to have you here, Guts. Would you like some salad?"

When Guts woke up, they found themself in a small room.  They were sitting in a chair, with a table in front of them. Owen handed them a porkchop. 

"Enjoy yourself! I made sure to include delicacies from your culture as well as mine. Like this-" he gestured to the pork and salad “-was one of my favorite foods. My mother made it for me all the time as a child. She was a poet, you know? I started to dabble in poetry as well in her honor, but if you want to hear some of my work you’ll have to ask Krow."

Guts stood up, backing away. "Why are you doing this? What is in the food?"

Owen smiled. "Nothing poisonous, I promise. In fact, I'll eat anything you ask me to if it makes you feel better!"

Guts grimaced. "The pork."

Owen ate some.

"The juice."

He drank some of that too.

"The pumpkin"

Owen stopped. "That I can't have. Like I said, I incorporated some of your delicacies. Now this was supposed to be a pleaseant surprise, but why not just tell you! Unlike demons, I cannot have netherwart."

Guts paled.

"However, I did make this for you, and it would be a shame to see it go to waste. Would you like some?" He handed them a bowl full.

"Why should I trust you? You hate demons, you want to kill them! If you won’t eat something, how am I meant to know if it's poisoned?"

Owen shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I honestly don't know why you think that. I'm just preparing a meal for a friend! Besides-" He revealed a hidden knife, “-I had you unconscious for an hour. If I wanted you dead, don’t you think I would’ve done it already?”

"I don’t want anything you made."

"Why not? It would be such a shame to see it go to waste. And you said netherwart was a demon delacy. Remember? At the feast."

"I did say that, didn’t I," Guts said, frowning. 

Owen smiled again, and it sent a chill through Guts. “You know, I’ve been thinking about that day a lot recently, and when you’re stuck in a small box, there isn’t much to do but… reminisce. And you know what? It dosen’t make sense that you wouldn’t check to make sure theat humans could eat netherwart as well." He sat down ant the small table he had made and opened his journal, flipping through.

“More than that, I don’t think that demons can eat netherwart. I pride myself in my knowledge of enemies, and not once have I ever come across any information that they are immune to ibotenic acid or muscimol. So then, Guts, what exactly were your intentions in poisoning the food at the feast?”

Guts sighed. “It wasn’t meant for Magic, and she knows, I told her. She dosen’t really trust me, ‘forgive but don’t forget’, you know? But she dosent hold it against me.”

Owen sighed. “But see, that’s the issue, I don’t think it's up to Magic to forgive you. I don’t think its up to anyone.”

Owen handed Guts a juice. “In another world, this could’ve been a more pleasant experience for you, but I only had an hour to pull it together. Nonetheless, I want to tell you something for the road. Someone once told me that ‘An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind’. The issue is, I don’t think that’s true. Say we have two people, both with two eyes of course, and one of them takes the other’s eye. Now, in response, let’s say the one-eyed man takes the other’s eye. And let’s say in response to that, the first person takes the other’s remaining eye.”

Owen’s smile dropped. “How is the second person, now nothing more than a blind fool, ever meant to enact revenge, to take the first one’s eye, when they can barely find their hand in fron of their face. The way I see it, ‘An eye for an eye’ leaves one one-eyed man in a world of the blind. The question we have to ask, Guts, is who do we want to be? The blind man… or the one with one eye.”

Guts turned to see a rope behind them. That had to be how Owen got down. They had to escape, had to tell the others, had to make it out.

"Consider it... food for thought." Owen watched them calmly. 

Flee.

As Guts began up the rope, Owen sighed. “Well, I guess my choice was made for me. After all, it isn’t everyone who gets their eye taken away, but I guess the world wanted me to know my place.”

A hidden button was pushed. Guts fell to the ground and screamed in pain as their legs shattered. 

Owen walked up to them, lying on the floor, and aimed his javelin. 

“Shame. I seem to have found my blind person.”